In stunning reversal, Trump's personal doctor says Trump dictated a letter declaring he was in 'astonishingly excellent' health during the 2016 election

05/02/2018

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President Donald Trump's longtime personal physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, says Trump himself dictated the letter declaring a clean bill of health for Trump in 2015. The news comes the same day Bornstein said Trump associates "raided" his offices in 2017.

President Donald Trump's longtime personal doctor, Harold Bornstein, says that Trump himself dictated a letter declaring a clean bill of health for Trump in 2015.

"That's black humor, that letter," Bornstein continued. "That's my sense of humor. It's like the movie 'Fargo': It takes the truth and moves it in a different direction."

The letter raised more than a few eyebrows during the 2016 presidential election campaign, due to its language and prose: "If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency," the letter said.

"[Trump] dictated the letter and I would tell him what he couldn't put in there," Bornstein said, adding that the Trump camp stopped by his office to pick up the letter.

Bornstein's admission on Tuesday was reported shortly after he claimed that Trump's aides conducted a raid on his offices in 2017 and took Trump's medical records. The incident reportedly took place two days after he disclosed to a newspaper that Trump was prescribed hair-growth medicine.

"They must have been here for 25 or 30 minutes," Bornstein said of the incident. "It created a lot of chaos."

"I've been waiting, humiliated, for an entire year," he continued. "How would you feel if you cared for someone for 35 years, they came and robbed your office?"

Bornstein, who said he felt "raped" by the incident, also noted that the aides asked him to take a photo of himself with Trump, off the wall inside his waiting room.

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders disputed Bornstein's claims, and said that the incident was "standard operating procedure" that the White House Medical Unit "took possession of the President's medical records."

Trump's release of the doctor's letter in 2015 came amid a vigorous presidential campaign, one where he frequently cast doubt on the "stamina" of his opponents, including Hillary Clinton and former Florida governor Jeb Bush.

"They don't understand weakness," Trump said in 2015. "Somebody like Jeb, and others that are running against me — and by the way, Hillary is another one."

"I mean, Hillary is a person who doesn't have the strength or the stamina, in my opinion, to be president," Trump continued. "She doesn't have strength or stamina. She's not a strong enough person to be president."